I never agree with Motor Trend either, but let's face it, magazines today are swayed by their advertisers. I have the H3 and my wife has had an Xterra for two years. She likes the H3 head and heels over her '04 Xterra. Some subjective observations from me: the Xterra doesn't do water and creeks as well as my H3, the Xterra bounces my head into the roof more often offroad, the Xterra rides much firmer on the highway than the H3, the Xterra has been stuck in mud on the trail to our house twice this year, the H3 ZERO, the AM radio on the Xterra is horrible and barely gets KMOX, which my H3 gets easily, the headlights are not as bright at night on the Xterra, and a major factor to me, the seats are nowhere near as comfortable as the H3, the brakes feel mushier on the Xterra, the Xterra gets a little worse mileage than my H3, and the only positive I would give it over the H3 is its visibility and ease of cargo loading and passenger entry.
All these observations are subjective after living with both vehicles in a true offroad environment on a daily basis.
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